It’s been a long time since we did an alumni update and we’ve got over a dozen players playing in leagues throughout the world including the NHL, AHL, ECHL and multiple European leagues.
NHL
The Huskies have two former players in the NHL at this point in the season.
Jujhar Khaira is playing in Edmonton and has 5 assists while playing in 22 of the team’s 24 games.
Pheonix Copley is the primary back-up goaltender for Washington and has seen action in nine games including his first five NHL wins. He’s allowed 25 goals in 490 minutes with a 0.899 save percentage. His numbers have been pretty good, excluding a couple shaky appearances. You can’t ignore bad appearances, but ignoring his first start and the terrible appearance against Montreal on November 19th, Copley has a 2.20 GAA and 0.921 save percentage.
AHL
Michigan Tech currently has eight alumni who have played in the AHL this season. The group played for Mike Sertich, Jamie Russell, Mel Pearson and Joe Shawhan during their time at MTU.
Tanner Kero was traded during the off-season to Vancouver from Chicago and the Canucks assigned Kero to the Utica Comets. Kero’s has 6 goals and 10 assists through 21 games good for a tie with Reid Boucher, a former OHL star who’s been in pro hockey since 2013, for most points on the Comets. The Comets currently sit fourth in the North Division at 9-10-1.
Joel L’Esperance made his professional debut at the end of last season and has stuck with the Texas Stars. Through 18 games L’Esperance has 16 points including a team leading 8 goals. He trails only Denis Gurianov and Erik Condra (Notre Dame) for in points. The Stars currently sit in seventh place in the Central Division at 8-8-2 with multiple games in hand. Shane Hanna is also playing for the Texas Stars and has 2 points in 14 appearances as a rookie.
Chris Conner is the only remaining AHL/NHL professional from the Sertich/Russell era, but he continues to put up points for Lehigh Valley. now in his fourth season with the Phantoms, an affiliate of Philadelphia, Conner has a chance to top 200 points in his career with Lehigh Valley if he can continue current production. He’s currently fifth on the team in scoring with 7 goals and 5 assists while playing in all but one of Lehigh Valley’s 18 games. The top four scorers include other familiar college names including Greg Carey (St. Lawrence), and Mike Vecchione (Union). Also of note, Conner was named an Alternate Captain for the third time with the Phantoms.
Mitch Reinke made his NHL debut last season with the St. Louis Blues, however he has started this season with their AHL affiliate in San Antonio. Despite being a blueliner, Reinke is tied for the team lead with 12 points through 21 games. His 11 assists also leads the team. The Rampage are in last place in the Central Division with an 8-13 record.
Blake Pietila has been a part of the New Jersey Devils organization since turning pro in 2015. He’s appeared in 19 NHL game, but spent most of his time in the AHL. This year with Binghampton, Pietila is in a three-way tie for point leader at 13 points with Nick Lappin (Brown) and Marian Studenic. Pietila is also an Alternate Captain for the sixth place Devils. They have a record of 8-10-3.
Matt Roy is in his third season with the Ontario Reign including a short stint after the end of his college career in 2016-17. Through 17 games, Roy has 3 goals and 11 points which is good for fourth on the team behind Brett Sutter, Matt Moulson (Cornell), and Sean Walker (BGSU). The Reign currently sit in 6th place in the Pacific with a 7-7-3 record and multiple games in hand.
Cliff Watson played in 4 games for the Stockton Heat while on loan from the Kansas City Mavericks (ECHL) and put up one assist.
EDIT: Angus Redmond was recently called up to the San Diego Gulls after spending the first two months of the season with Reading in the ECHL. He has yet to appear for the Gulls, which currently sit in last place in the Pacific Division with a 7-7-2 record.
https://twitter.com/BCHLmoves/status/1067492897514090496
Europe
Alex Petan is in his second season with Bolzano, an Italian team in the Austrian Hockey League (EBEL). Last year he helped lead the team to the EBEL Title and a spot in the Champions Hockey League. Petan managed 6 points in 8 games during the Champions Hockey League, where he helped Bolzano advanced from the group stage for the first time ever before losing in the Round of 16 to the #1 seed HC Plzeň of the Czech Republic. So far in the EBEL regular season Petan has 7 points in 15 games. He’s currently ranked 11th on the team in points but has missed a handful of games. Time will tell if he can return to his 2017-18 form as a point per game scorer.
Mark Auk decided to make the move to Finland this last offseason and is playing for Lukko in the Finnish 1st Division (Liiga). In 18 games, Auk has 3 points while Lukko is currently 13th of 15 teams with a 9-11-4 record.
Brett Olson is in his second season with Ingolstadt in the German top division (DEL). Through 22 games, Olson has 4 goals and 9 points and Ingolstadt is currently 6th with a 14-8-1 record.
Steven Seigo made the move to the DEL this offseason joining the Straubing Tigers after bouncing around Finland, KHL and Sweden. In 22 games, Seigo has 5 points and the Tigers are currently 8th with a 11-10-2 record.
ECHL
We have quite a few players down in the ECHL, I won’t go into details on any of them but here is a list of the guys and where they’re playing:
Jamie Phillips – Florida
EDIT: Angus Redmond – Reading
CJ Eick – Kansas City
Chris Leibinger – Rapid City
Riley Sweeney – Kansas City
Eric Kattelus – Kalamazoo
Michael Neville – Florida
Featured Image of Joel L’Esperance courtesy of the Texas Stars
Tim is a 2004 graduate of Michigan Tech. He is a co-founder of both Mitch’s Misfits and Tech Hockey Guide. With recent additions to the staff, Tim is again able to focus on his passion, recruiting. He currently works as an environmental engineer and resides in the Minneapolis/St. Paul Area.
“You can’t ignore bad appearances, but ignoring…”
And if you ignore all the games the Huskies have lost this season, they’d be undefeated!!!
C’mon, man…
I know, but when I started writing the article it was a couple weeks ago and he had the one bad start early…had to tweak it afterwards…not to mention hes pretty young so you’re going to have bad starts. I was trying to show what his numbers were outside of his terrible appearances.
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